Twist

by Colby Hodge

Abbey Shore never intended to be the savior of the it was just something that happened--like her father's tragic death and the fact that she's now poor and "flipping" houses in the Chicago suburbs to finish college. And there's behind a crumbling wall in her current renovation, a swirling vortex hides. It's a gate, a portal--and it will not only case her into the arms and power of the enigmatic yet doomed Dr. Shane Maddox, but also into the clutches of Lucinda, the eerie, leather-clad beauty who shadowed his every move in the Sacred Heart ER. Abbey will soon be one hundred years in the future, in a dying land filled with roving bands of humans fighting for survival, and the "ticks" against them they fight. Oh yes, Abbey's live has had a TWIST.

Genres: Romance, Time Travel, Fantasy, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy

Kindle Edition

First published January 29, 2008

About the author

I've always been a writer. Ever since I could remember my biggest desire was to put words to paper. Finally my dreams of publication came true in 2002 with the release of Chase The Wind, the first book in my historical family saga. But I've also looked to the stars since I was a small girl. Which led to my writing of Futuristic Action Romance under the pen name Colby Hodge. And since I've got a knack for relating to teens, I also enjoy writing for them under the name Kassy Tayler.

And just so you know a bit about me. I've been married for several years to the man of my dreams. We've also raised two exceptional sons and enjoy life in the shadow of Pilot Mountain in NC where we share our home with a long haired dauschund and a cat who thinks she's the queen of the world.

"

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A time travel adventure, with alien vampires and Abbey, the Time Guardian, there was plenty of action as well as romance Abbey Shore was flipping houses and just trying to stay afloat as she worked to finish college and indulged her passion for training in karate. As a series of unfortunate events lead her to the hospital and meeting Dr. Shane Maddox, as well as the scary Lucinda who seems to be following her, Abbey’s life has taken a distinct turn in the wrong direction. When she discovers a strange device hidden in a wall in the current house she’s working on, she’s drawn forward 100 years, where life is hard and the few remaining humans fight against the alien vampires, or ticks, who prey upon them. It seems that Abbey is the key to getting the world back on track, if she can just get back to her time. I liked Abbey, who was thrust into something she wasn’t prepared for, and the characters were interesting, including the villains being fought against. An interesting take on vampires, but they served the purpose of an evil that our heroes had to fight, and that’s what matters. I liked the cats that helped in the fight as well, that was a nice addition to the story..

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abbey Shore never thought her current life would be more important than “flipping” houses in the Chicago suburbs to finish college. And there was no way that she could have predicted the house on which she was currently working in had an a swirling vortex that would not only reunite her with the handsome Dr. Shane she had just met, from the Sacred Heart’s ER and the creepy, leather-clad beauty named Lucinda who’d seemed to shadow her every move.

She also didn’t expect to be sent one hundred years into the future, into a dying land filled with bands of humans fighting to survive against the Ticks. Abbey's life has taken quite a twist.

This is the first Shomi line book I've read and I really like it. The world Hodge wrote was pragmatic and very interesting and as I read this book, I imagined myself living in such world where humans being are hunted by Ticks is as normal as taking a walk outside. I loved her vivid imagination and I really enjoyed reading how Abbey is dumped in a world she doesn't know at all, and how the she deals with it. I loved how she interacted with Shane and the other fighters. Twist is a story packed with non-stop action and wonderful characters.

[Michelle Gilmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading Twist, and I loved it! There's so many things that I like about this novel. For starters, there's time-travel, romance, a tortured hero, aliens/vampires, a likeable heroine who's realistic, and a femme fatale villain! And don't even get me started on Jayne the cat, and Charlie the dog! When I started reading, I couldn't put this book down. Colby Hodge did an excellent job with the paceing of this story. The action was well spaced and suspenseful, the romance between Shane the hero, and Abbey the heroine was perfectly paced, and there was some real romantic tension that had me rooting for them to get together. After reading the synopsis, I expected a lot of silliness. I just didn't expect a romantic story involving aliens and time travel to be so well executed. This was the first Shomi novel that I've read, and it saddens me that Shomi novels are no longer being published. Thankfully, I have other Shomi novels on hand won't wait as long to read them as I did to read Twist.

[Breana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Theres 32 other explanations of the plot, so I'll explain why I love this book personally.
The book is underrated, and at first glance youd think it was some anime manga book or something.
It's not. This book has an incredible balance of love, passion, humor, butt kicking, and a comfortably complex story line that includes cats that makes you unable to put the book down.
This book will forever be in my arsenal of must reads. When you finish, you need to read again and again.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd give this one seven stars if the scale went up that high!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had an original plot and likable characters. I loved the animals that were intertwined into the story. My reasoning for deducting one star... it didn't grab my attention and pull me in as much as I expected. This was surprising to me since I love this type of book. I think it was all the jumping around, along with the ending being read first. It was a good read overall though.

[Carolyn F.]

I've given up on this book and I got halfway through it. I'm not too much into time travel (except Outlander) and this book was kind of confusing to me. Why all the hate? Just because she couldn't make it and something bad happened to you? I kept thinking he was acting like a baby. And what were these baddies? So, because I didn't finish it, no rating.

[Stacy Neace · Rating 4 out of 5]

We've been looking for this again, I preread for my teenager, I'd bought a copy at an event and had it signed. She lent it to a friend and lost it. I loved it as much as she did! Now that she's an adult we wanted to read again. So it's on its way here!!

[Joni Chism · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun quick read for me. I only dropped one star due to grammatical errors which I blame on the editor.

[Paranormal Romance · Rating 3 out of 5]

The heroine has always been a bit of a loner. She's doesn't have a lot of friends or much of a social life outside of karate because she's so career driven. She sees the hero every day on the train ride into school but never has the courage to talk to him. Then one night, outside a coffee shop in the pouring rain, they meet. He is nice and it seems just as socially inept as she is. But still, something is holding her back and they parts way without much of a conversation. Back in her fixer upper house, the heroine cuts her arm pretty bad and needs to go to the hospital for stitches. Walking the dark street because her phone is dead, else she'd call an ambulance, the heroine is spooked by the feeling of someone following her. Pouring blood out of her injury, she runs into the hospital and into the arms of none other than the sexy hero himself. Getting fixed up and at the same time, somehow managing to be asked out for coffee, the heroine is excited at the chance to actually date! Back in the house however, fate seems to have other ideas.

That strange noise she's been hearing in her wall is actually a weird time machine portal and suddenly the heroine finds herself thrust 100 years into the future. The world as she knew is dead and in its place is a dark and dangerous existence to the remaining human race as their lives are in constant risk from the Ticks-aka alien vampires. And shocker of all is the hero is alive and kicking even though he should be long dead. He's become a bitter and torture man-nothing like the ray of sunshine she met before. He's been turned into a vampire and blames her because it's her that the Tick queen wants. Stuck in the world, struggling to come to terms with what has happened to her, the heroine finds herself intermingling with the small group she comes to live with. She even finds herself a member of this makeshift family. The hero runs hot and cold, one moment he's sweet and seductive and the other he's a raging bull. It's his conflicting emotions towards her, she comes to realize. He blames her for the torture of his life now but he always is falling in love with her. She feels the same Indecision as well. He's a kind man who makes her feel wanted and desirable but he's also a dangerous creature who much kill to survive. Banding together to fend off the Ticks attacks and venturing forth in the post-apocalyptic world the heroine and her group struggle to survive all the while knowing the ticks are desperate to grab the heroine. As a time, guardian, she alone has the ability to stop this evil world from every coming to be. To do it, she much says goodbye to the friends and lovers she's come to know it this future and return to save humanity. No matter the cost.

Alright. So, I will ask you, because personally I am unclear, what was the purpose of this story? It\s a PNR yes but I still like to have something to take any with me- be it a vision of hope for love or character development. I found this book, while exciting and unique to the vampire myth, to be rather pointless, honestly. The heroine, who was the focus of the story, did not evolve much as a character. She was the same strong woman she was at the finish ad she was at the start. She didn't really learn any life lessons other than maybe that time is short? To grab a chance of happiness while you have it? The hero was certainly a bit of a toss away. He is a sweet and kind man in the present but a torture soul in the future, yet, the time is reversed and everything the reader has come to learn from his character is pretty much void because he's no longer that man. Okay, okay, the story was nice and as I said it was packed full of action and fight scenes and the tension between the hero and heroine was palpable and quite lovely. I didn't say I hated the book, I just didn't feel like it was grade A story telling is all. Regardless of its flaws, I find this book sticks in my memory which is certainly a good thing.

[♥ Rebecca ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review can also be found on my blog: A Match Made in Heaven

This would be 4.5/5 if we had the option. The cover kind of turned me off at first. But one of my RL friends recommended it to me and she lent me her copy, so I really had to read it. And I am glad I did! Ignore the cover. This reads like any other YA paranormal romance.

This is one twisted book! No pun intended. Its a romance/post-apocalyptic/alien invasion/time-travel/vampire/ninja book. The story was a combination of pretty much everything you can think of, which actually made it feel incredibly original. And it had almost endless movie and TV references. The main character even named her cat Jayne, after Jayne Cobb from Firefly. A nice tense story with great romance.

I enjoyed the fact that their relationship was slow to develop. Very fun to read. It was obvious they wanted each other from the beginning, but being a life-sucking alien-spawn puts a damper on things, and it took forever before he finally gave in. And he still couldnt do it without her persuasion, which is one of my favourite parts of the book, her pleading. You gotta love when a guy doesnt wanna hurt a girl and she doesnt care. Haha, that part maybe isnt so original, but surrounding circumstances still were. Such as, it wasnt a matter of self control, no amount of love would control him. In the end, he does hurt her and she has to leave him. Sort of. ;)

The dialogue between the two did sound very teen mushy mushy at times, but that is my only complaint, and it was only sometimes. Also the ending is, in a way, bittersweet. But might be being a bit picky about that.

[Tez · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a serial killer on the loose, and a mysterious leather-clad lady is stalking Abbey Shore, who accidentally stumbles into a time portal she uncovers in the house she's been flipping. Now Abbey's one hundred years into the future, and the only people she recognises are Dr Shane Maddox...and the lady in leather. She doesn't want Abbey dead after all, but does have a nefarious purpose in mind. Plus Abbey has to get used to this new world where the ticks are hungry, and only those with ninja skills can defeat them.

I'm deliberately being vague so as not to spoil, but this book saved my bacon, pulling me out of a reading slump. An awesome concept with snappy execution and twist upon twist - and ninjas. Even the cats are kick-arse, in particular Jayne. This is a bloody good read.

But despite it being one hundred years into the future, everyone's slang is much the same as now. And Abbey's pop culture references are rather annoying. Okay, she's from 2008 - we get it. She watches a lot of TV and films, and Jennifer Aniston's name appears twice within the text. I would've deleted these things as they date the novel, and I don't relate to them. On the other hand, had Twist been full of Family Guy references... ;-)

Also, the talk of "life-mates", fate and destiny is not my thing. That kind of gimmick breaks my suspension of disbelief.

So the book isn't perfect. It's still the best thing I've read in awhile.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I bought this book a while back and then loaned it to an RA. She left before returning it. I recently won another copy in a contest and look forward to reading it.

I started reading hoping for a trashy romance that I could joke about for a few days. It did have elements of that, but it also had more plot than not. I found myself drawing parallels between Twist and, of all things, Twilight probably because of Shane's sudden personality changes throughout and Abby's suddenly being head over heels for him in the future. That was another thing that gets me, future!Shane could be expected to believe Abby about all the weirdness that went on, he was part of it, but present!Shane only knows that the chick he had a date with is threatening some other woman with a katana. His lack of real freak outs, while supporting the "destined love" mentioned later in the book, would tend to make one question his sanity. The whole of the ending seemed a bit rushed, but it was a good weekend book so long as one does not think too hard. Over all, I enjoyed it and would read more by the author.

This has nothing to do with the story, but I found it hilarious that they put an "Autographed Copy" sticker on the front cover when flipping to the cover page shows that it is indeed signed.

[Martina the Book Fairy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twist is a SHOMI book, SHOMI being a line of action romance with a touch of futuristic sci-fi/cyberpunk style mostly published in 2008.

Abbey is a poor college student majoring in architecture who is paying her tuition by "flipping" houses in the Chicago suburbs. While renovating she knocks down a wall to find a strange time twister than flings her 100 years into the future. . . a future where a plague has decimated a large chunk of the human population and those who survived are being preyed upon by vampire-like creatures.

I LOVED this book! It has it all - exciting adventure, a unique take on "vampires", a struggling romance, a just-realistic-enough-yet-still-kick-ass protagonist, and moments of both humor and heart. The blurb on the back kept me from reading it for awhile as it just didn't sound as interesting as the book actually IS. If you enjoyed the 2176 series or the Crimson City series (both led by Liz Maverick, who also wrote some of the other SHOMI books) then it's a good bet you'll like Twist, too.

[Christina (AKA Babbling) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abbey Shore is a struggling architectural student. She “flips” houses to pay for school. Her current renovation project is her dream house, the one she plans to keep. She officially meets Dr. Shane Maddox when she goes to the ER for stitches. Until then, he was just the cute guy she saw every morning on the El, and ran into at a coffee shop. Abbey’s attracted to him, but she has never had the nerve to introduce herself. He seems interested in her, too. He flirts with her in the ER, walks her home the next morning, and asks if she’d like to meet for coffee that night. Abbey happily accepts. However, just when she’s about to leave the house to meet him, Abbey decides to investigate the noise coming from behind the wall in her living room. She unearths a strange object and ends up 100 years in the future, though she doesn’t know that at first.

To read the rest, please visit Christina Babbles

Original post: 20 Sep 2008

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twist was a fun read. Paranormal romance with twist, no pun intended. Also time-travel, vampires, aliens, post-apocalyptic society, and ninjas ... what's not to love about all that? In addition, I enjoyed the way the animals have a part to play in the book. Like with Stephen King, one can tell that the author is an animal lover without it having to be stated outright. I also enjoyed all the references to current geek pop culture. References to iconic geekdom such as Firefly, Buffy, Harry Potter, and The Princess Bride abound. The writing was smooth, the story original and intriguing. Twist would make a great movie. I'd give this book a 4 except that there are a *lot* of good books out there and this isn't quite the caliber of, say, Stephen King or Asimov.

[Linda C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abbey Shore, architectural student, putting herself through college by flipping houses, finds a weird device behind a brick wall she tears down. Before she knows it she is sucked 100 years into the future where human life has been devastated by a bird flu type virus and vampires are proliferating. She is rescued by a band of humans and a doctor who Abbey met just before she was transported. It seems he was turned the same night he was to have met Abbey for coffee and she never showed up. Abbey is the only one who can correct the vampire insurgence by manipulating the time machine. Good urban fantasy, time travel; although I am not a fan of vampires.

[Yolanda Sfetsos · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know, I'm really not surprised that I enjoyed this book so much. This is the fifth SHOMI I've read, and so far, I'm totally lovin' this line. Awesome. This one involved time travel, ticks, and a post-apocalyptic future that grabbed me from the beginning.

Man, I'm totally loving these post-apoc books.

[Jody Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually liked the worldbuilding and action/adventure aspect of the story more than the romance part and the hero being especially selected for the heroine. I didn't need them to be mystically connected to believe they liked each other and wanted to be together.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seriously fun -- time travel and alien vampires! A woman renovating a house discovers something that launches her 100 years into the future. Here, humans fight for survival after an epidemic of bird flu and invasion of alien vampires.

[Insane_lover · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this book and I like the way how things are twisted in the story.

[Tracy's Place · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 out of 5

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Think Harlequin Romance meets 28 days. A delightful little read with sexual tension and post-apocalyptic ass kicking fun.

[Literary Lusts · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book since the premise seemed entertaining. Unfortunately, while not terrible, it just couldn't get me hooked in the story. It's such a pain when that happens.

[Veronika Levine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this blend of science fiction/urban fantasy and romance, but the pop reference kept taking me out of the story. A good read if you like romance with a blend of armageddon.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining!

[Smita Jha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vampire story - sorta. Not classic literature, but not badly imagined and maintains a quick pace.

[Linniegayl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this a B+ review at All About Romance:

http://likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookRev...

[Jaycee DeLorenzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read. Still love this book.

[Lora · Rating 5 out of 5]

time travel, sword fighting, vampires and a cute doctor! What more could a girl want!